A pick-up truck is badly damaged after being hit in the rear by a 6-wheel truck. The pick-up, after being hit, rammed into the rear of a 10-wheel truck parked on Mitrapap Highway in Nakhon Ratchasima. An elderly man, the pick-up truck driver, was killed. (Photo by Prasit Tangprasert)

An elderly man was crushed to death in a pile-up involving two lorries and a pickup in Muang district of this northeastern province on Sunday, police said.

The accident occurred at about 11.50am at kilometre marker No.129 on Mitrapap Highway near the intersection to Ban Don Kaew in tambon Khok Kruat.

Pramual 27, told police that while he was driving a six-wheel truck loaded with empty ice boxes from Nong Khai province -- heading for Samut Prakan to pick up fresh sea food along the highway, a pick-up suddenly cut in front of him to the left side of the highway without giving a signal, causing his truck to hit the rear of it. The pickup then rammed into the rear of a 10-wheel truck parked on the highway shoulder.

The driver of the pickup, 75, was seriously injured. He was pulled out from the wreck by rescuers and admitted to Thepart Hospital in Nakhon Ratchasima town, where he was later pronounced dead.

Witnesses told police that the 10-wheel truck, who parked his vehicle, which broke down, on one side of the highway. The elderly man then went away briefly and returned with the pickup truck he borrowed from elsewhere. He made a sudden switch to the left to park the pickup truck behind the 10-wheel truck, possibly with materials for repair work, causing the accident.